PERFORMANCE: OneBeat ABQ at the Rail Yards

OneBeat ABQ at the Rail Yards

An international music event and art happening

5-6pm: Pre-show events & activities6-9pm: Performance

516 ARTS teamed up with Found Sound Nation to co-present OneBeat ABQ, an international music event and art happening at the Albuquerque Rail Yards on November 1, 2014. This event was the culmination of a one-month residency tour from Saratoga, California to Albuquerque, which brought 25 musicians from 17 countries around the world (ages 19-35) to the U.S. to collaboratively compose, produce and perform original music and develop strategies for social engagement through music.

Now in its third year, OneBeat is an adventurous new model of cultural diplomacy, which is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation. Hailing from Egypt to Venezuela, 2014’s fellows included DJs and traditional instrumentalists, experimenters, indie-rockers and more. To name just a few, this cohort includes: Lara Klaus, a percussionist and educator from Recife, Brazil; Metin Kilic, a singer-songwriter and composer from Istanbul, Turkey; Peni Rini, an experimental vocalist from Java, Indonesia; Abdellah Hassak, a producer and organizer from Casablanca, Morocco; Dahlak Brathwaite, a Los Angeles-based MC and educator; and 20 other innovative musicians from an incredibly wide breadth of genres and backgrounds. For information about all the fellows, visit 1beat.org/about/fellows/#2014.

OneBeat endeavors to be the nexus of a new way of thinking about how music can help collectively build healthy communities, prosperous societies and a more peaceful world. More than simply a music exchange, OneBeat is an incubator for music-based social entrepreneurship – a think tank for some of the world’s most promising artistic, technological and social innovators. The finale of their Western tour was a unique, multimedia performance designed for the Albuquerque Rail Yards. It included projects by local artists working with projection, technology and social engagement, co-curated by 516 ARTS, OneBeat and Albuquerque artist Billy Joe Miller.

The theme of this year's OneBeat was the Audible Invisible, finding sonic expressions for the invisible powers that control us, from gravity to electromagnetism to culture. The Rail Yards show on November 1 - wedged between Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos - explored concepts of Spirit, one of the great invisible human universals. While the OneBeat musicians came from radically different backgrounds and religious beliefs (or lack thereof), they were all fascinated with the journey of spirit and particularly the notions of "thresholds" which spirits cross in life, death and other transformations.

Interwoven with this musical performances were art and video installations along these same themes. You are theDoorway was an art installation in the Railyard's Blacksmith Shop that explored spirit, thresholds and the invisible powers that guide us. Visitors were invited to interact with a series of art installations across the enormous space. Utilizing painted surfaces, highly crafted objects, knitting looms, natural materials, video and performance, the artists reflected on their journeys, questioned transofmative powers, and made sensitive, powerful, and often participatory pieces in response. They encouraged guests to step from spectator to participant and consider their own positioning in the dialogue. Featured visual artists included Michelle Montjoy, Ellen Babcock, Cedra Wood, Adam Wohlwend, Lance Ryan McGoldrick, Augustine Romero, William Feeney and Corvas Brinkerhoff. Video work by Karen Hipscher, Jackson Glasgow, Temujin Doran and UNM ARTS Lab. Performance art by Edie Tsong.

Media:

Articles:read:OneBeat Fellows Answer Questions about Community, Music and Collaboration by Josh Stuyvesant, Pyragraph, October 30, 2014read:Culture Club: 516 ARTS hosts OneBeat by Hakim Bellamy, October 28, 2014read:Musicians from 17 Countries stop in ABQ to perform as part of OneBeat by Adrian Gomez, The Albuquerque Journal, October 31, 2014

TV:watch: Art from around the world displayed at Rail Yards, KRQE, November 2, 2014.

OneBeat is an initiative of the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and produced by Bang on a Can's Found Sound Nation, led by Chris Marianetti, Jeremy Thal and Elena Moon Park. Found Sound Nation (FSN) is a collective of musicians and artists who leverage the unique power of creative sound-making to help build strong, just, healthy communities. Founded by Christopher Marianettie and Jeremy Thal in 2007, FSN began with one classroom-based studio in a failing school in the Bronx, and has expanded to include a wide range of projects including producing the OneBeat international exchange with the Department of State. FSN partners with local youth, social organizations, music festivals, and artists across all disciplines to engage people from all walks of life in an interactive process of collaborative music, audio and video production, in order to give voice to underrepresented communities, unlock the creative potential of youth, and bridge culutral and political divides. Found Sound Nation is part of the new music organization Bang on a Can, founded in 1987 by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, which is dedicated to supporting innovative music, wherever it is found. Bang on a Can has introduced many international artists to U.S. audiences and has collaborated closely with U.S. Embassies in Tashkent, Moscow, Mexico City, Istanbul, Surabaya, Shanghai, Budapest, and more.